Guard Duty
by HopeoftheForgotten
Summary: When Neji is on guard duty he hears someone coming down the hallway... Who could it be except Hinata sleepwalking? But what's wrong with Neji? NejixHina friendship fic and my sad attempt at humor... You have been warned!


I just randomly thought of this when I was eating peanut butter…..

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story…. *sniffle*

It was a dark night in the Hyuuga compound. The air was so laden with humidity you could drink it, making everything stick, clothes, hair, sticky notes…. You name it; it could get stuck, and made you look undignified.

'Thank goodness no one is up…' Neji thought, shaking his head to get his long, silky, and deep-conditioned hair off of his neck. He was on guard duty tonight in the Main Branch's house.

After Neji heard the truth at the Chunnin Exams he felt extraordinarily guilty for hurting his cousin. She (and the main branch) had forgiven him, and he had gradually forgiven himself over the last month, but still had elephant-size barrels of regret. Though Neji could see she had made some progress, he tried not to call attention to it in front of her father. (a/n: reasons stated later)

'This would be quite embarrassing if someone saw me like this…. Everything is stic- ' His thought was suddenly cut off by a sound of light, barely audible footsteps in the hallway that only _The Great Neji!_(© Macarena Neji Inc.) could hear them. They were coming around the corner and…..

It was Hinata.

"Hinata-sama" Neji began, "You should really be in bed it is late and you need to…" That is when Neji realized that she was sleepwalking!

Neji giggled to himself, realizing that he could do stuff that he normally couldn't when she was awake…. (a/n: not like that you perverts! )

Neji had a wicked smile on his lips, he couldn't wait…. But first…

"Hinata-sama?" he tried again, making sure that she was really asleep.

She didn't move from the spot, she seemed frozen as a Popsicle.

Neji kept smiling, he came closer, and…. Poked her on the stomach. 'YES! She didn't wake up!' Neji thought. Then he laughed manically as the backdrop was wheeled away by the stage crew, and replaced with a stormy one with lightning flashing around him.

Neji poked her again! Then, suddenly, lightning from the background struck him and went through his hand to Hinata! She suddenly woke up and had super powers! Okay, so that didn't happen….. but something like that…. *_Twilight Zone_ music*(a/n: Sorry abut this, but does the _Twilight _Zone music freak anyone else out?) When Neji went to poke her stomach again….

Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

She had just struck ten of his tenketsu, striking six at the same time. She was in a perfect stance, modified for defense and offence.

Neji, to say the least was stunned. Hinata had just attacked him, with lightning speed…. In her sleep…..

Neji then tried a formal approach, he didn't want to offend this Hinata… He then bowed respectfully, "Hinata-sa…"

Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

She had struck eighteen of his tenketsu.

Neji was starting to get desperate; he got into a defensive stance. "Hinata-sama, wake up please…" He wanted her to go back to her normal self, when she couldn't kick his butt, or even come close to it for that matter, he liked feeling important.

Hinata was on the attack again, attacking Neji with a graceful, but incredibly fast modified gentle fist technique. Neji was in awe, it was modified(a/n: Neji just realized it people, sorry, he's a bit slow at one in the morning, who wouldn't be?). She had noticed the same weaknesses that he had, though she had modified it a lot better to suit herself, Neji was still experimenting. Though he didn't know if she consciously knew of this…

He needed to get back to the fight; he needed to concentrate on her, for once….

Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. She wasn't getting any slower, but he was blocking a good amount, though her style was different than the normal Hyuuga's, flowing, yet there were some kinks in it, like how she had to whip around fast to execute a complex move, which left her open for a second or two, and other timing difficulties. About ten minutes went by like this, when Neji finally decided that he needed to use his ultimate defense… and attack….

"Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!" Neji whispered quietly then thought, 'I won't go up to the sixty-four, just enough to make her body stop working for a few hours… she will have about four hours to recover…. That should be good.'

He then saw Hinata in and unfamiliar stance, but Neji was assured that no one could block his 64 palms attack, well, except Hiashi, or maybe Hanabi… Neji HATED Hanabi; she lorded over him, and used the seal, TWICE, that as unforgivable in Neji's eyes. Neji no longer had an indescribable hatred for the main branch, just Hanabi, and Hiashi…. Ok, so it was just Hinata from the main branch he didn't hate with his almighty destined hatred. So…. Back to Neji getting a big surprise….

He came at her, and she opened her eyes and whispered something inaudible, then her hands start moving around her, slowly at first, but sped up quickly, in time enough to… counter his attack?

Neji circled it, hitting it on every single space.

It didn't have a weak point. None. Did he mention something? She wasn't turning. At all, it was just her arms!

Neji was starting to wonder why she really needed a guard if she could fight like this in her sleep…. Scratch that, she did need a guard, one to protect passers-by.

*warning: sentimental part coming up*

'Dang it' Neji thought, he always censored his language around Hinata-sama, even in his mind, he couldn't take it when he was around her, she was too innocent. Even when she was whooping his butt, in her sleep, she had an aura of total innocence about her that made Neji soften; this is actually why he despised her so much in the beginning. She could make him weak without even doing anything, make him care without trying. He realized he had protective feelings for her; she was like a little sister to him, even then. He had tried to deny those feeling, especially when he fought her at the chunnin exams.

When he saw her blood….. he went into a rage, he wanted to hurt the closest person, which happened to be her. He didn't understand his feeling then, but he kept attacking her, which made him even angrier, and he wondered afterward why he got so out of control, then it hit him when he analyzed his own actions, he cared, even without meaning too. He didn't even realize that his anger was directed at himself, not Hinata… He had berated himself afterward, and for once, he felt guilty, and his conscious poofed out of nowhere and was still scolding him harshly to this day.

Hinata had grown so much, physically (not perversely! Get your minds out of the gutter!) and mentally, She had grown more confident, and stronger, and what was lucky was that her father didn't notice. He himself had only had tiny hints, and he never, ever though she was this strong, though he scolded himself for thinking she couldn't. He didn't want her father to notice, at all,(he had noticed t some degree, the time she want on the mission to get the bikochu to put Hinata through that again…. Would be homicide, from Neji's point of view. So he kept her father occupied on himself, and made sure Hinata trained out of the house. Down side was that Neji couldn't help her, see her train, or help her at all.

Though he helped when he could, Neji wanted to help more with his ever-improving cousin.

He just didn't know she had progressed this far. Her own technique, fixing the flaws that Neji himself had noticed, and altering it until it fit her almost perfectly.

Neji did what he hadn't done since… well, ever.

He stopped fighting and cried with happiness, his younger cousin had gotten to his level, and he needed to train with her more, to teach her more to surpass Hanabi. Neji could do it, but Hinata needed to fight a family member while awake, and she had an emotional attachment to her sister that would never fade or break. That bond was something resembling to his for Hinata, and Hinata's for him.

He started crying harder, he had never been this happy. He remembered how she had forgiven him like all he had done was borrow her shampoo again(that reminded him, he needed to buy some more for her, he had used it all). He suddenly hugged Hinata in his joy.

Needless to say Hinata woke up.

"Nii-san? What's wrong? Your crying!" Hinata said with worry. Her facial expression suddenly took a change, something a bit harsher than worry, she was deeply concerned for her usually stoic cousin, she had only see him cry once, when his father had died. Hinata then spoke again, in worried motherly tone, also holding the authority of a mother. She would pay her cousin back for all the times he had protected her. "Nii-san, I will avenge you, I don't care how weak I am, but who ever hurt you will _pay_."

'Hinata-sama sounds mad.' Neji thought. He scanned his memory for a time when she was mad. He couldn't find any.

Neji put two any two together… and got four!

Okay, so Neji put two and two together and stiffened.

Hinata a few minutes ago. Hinata mad for the first time.

Neji fainted.


End file.
